


If We Shadows Have Offended

by Kazzy



Category: Bedlam (TV)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Haunting, Mental Health Issues, post-2x01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-13
Updated: 2012-06-13
Packaged: 2017-11-07 15:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazzy/pseuds/Kazzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two weeks at ‘Brightmoor’ and Ellie knows more about ghosts - <i>remnants</i> - than she learned in the entire previous six months. And as good as that is, she’s not entirely sure it’s better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If We Shadows Have Offended

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer –** Not mine.   
> **Notes -** Written and set post 2x01

Two weeks at ‘Brightmoor’ and Ellie knows more about ghosts – _remnants_ – than she learned in the entire previous six months. And as good as that is, she’s not entirely sure it’s better. She still has no job, no fiancée and is living in a haunted former mental hospital with an over enthusiastic ghost – sorry, _remnant_ – hunter and an arrogant womaniser.

In that time she has...exorcised? put to rest?...three further ghosts with Max’s help and without further injury (to them anyway, other residents have not been so lucky, only somewhat oblivious to the real cause of trouble), but not without earning Warren’s everlasting irritation. He’s caught them twice, but not doing something they shouldn’t, so he can do nothing other than glare whenever he passes either of them, which seems to happen with increasing frequency. Max is only mildly concerned about his job, but Ellie finds the older man creepy and wishes she had a way to know when he is headed in her direction.

Right now she is relieved that he has no idea exactly what they were doing last night in order to get the _remnant_ of Esther Simpkins to stop stalking the daughter of one of Brightmoor’s current residents. Though considering it’s only a little after seven and she only got to bed a little before four, she’s mostly just dozing as she listens to Max and Dan get ready for work, waiting for them to leave so she can go back to sleep. All her plans for a good long lie in are interrupted when Dan raps on her door.

“Ellie your mum’s here,” he calls, jolting her from a deeper sleep than she realised she’d fallen into.

“Wha’?” she says, groggy and confused.

But her door opens and her mum pushes in past Dan who is wearing the look which always makes Ellie glad she’s fully clothed, even if it’s flannel pyjamas printed with pink cupcakes. Of course her mum doesn’t seem to notice.

“Good morning, love,” she churrips and Ellie has to fight the urge to the throw the covers over her head childishly and pretend this is all in her mind.

“Mum! It’s half seven,” she complains. At least Dan has disappeared.

“Well, I had to catch you before you left, didn’t I?”

“I’m not working, Mum. Not going anywhere.” No job. No money. No restless souls. Ellie hadn’t planned to do much of anything today.

“How about I buy you breakfast, then?”

“You don’t have to do that.” Translation: I just want to go back to sleep.

“I want to.” The tone her mother uses suggests she picked up on the meaning behind Ellie’s words. But she’s wearing the expression that Ellie hates – the same one that started appearing at the same time as the ghosts. The worried one that is so unsettling, that Ellie is powerless against it (in weaker moments she wonders if it’s deliberate).

So half an hour later she’s showered, dressed and pulling on shoes as her mum chats with Max – Dan having already left for work – or rather chatting _at_ Max who, having been up as late as her, is mostly just clutching a coffee mug with wide-eyed desperation and mumbling at semi-appropriate intervals.

“I was just telling Max what a nice place this is,” her mum says.

Max blinks owlishly but doesn’t comment.

“Yeah,” replies Ellie. Most of the furniture, as it turns out, belongs to Kate. Ellie’s packed up all personal items from the bedroom, including clothes, that Kate left behind, though she’s still using a lot of the stuff belonging to the other woman. She doesn’t have a lot, and it’s all much nicer than anything she could afford, but she’s becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this, wondering where Kate is, and if she’s all right. No one’s looking for her, she’s not classified as a missing person...but no one’s heard from her since she left, either.

“I’m ready,” Ellie says, now.

Thank you, Max mouths behind her mum’s back as they leave. Ellie tries not to smirk.

-x-x-x-

Breakfast is nice, and the coffee is better, it’s cold enough out that they stay in to eat, but wrapped up warm they go for a walk on the grounds afterwards. By then it’s nearing nine, but even though the sun is up, the cold autumn morning is grey as clouds hang close overhead. It’s not threatening rain, but the wind is keeping most people inside and Ellie briefly contemplates dealing with rem- _ghosts_ come winter. She really hopes there won’t be snow.

But maybe she won’t be here come winter.

She pushes away thoughts of what might cause her not to be here in even a month or two (maybe married, maybe dead), and tries to focus on her mother’s conversation – held back while they were eating. They are heading away from the cemetery, mostly by Ellie’s design, as she’s spent enough time there over the last two weeks, she has no desire to see it if she doesn’t have to.

“Andy called yesterday,” her mother says and it’s a question, but Ellie says nothing. “Said he wanted to know how you are.”

This makes her break her silence on the subject. “He could have called me.” She has stopped calling him, because he stopped taking her calls and she can’t bear to hear his voice mail one more time.

“I said the very same thing.” Ellie waits. “And then I told him that if he had a lick of sense, he’d take you back.”

Ellie wants to say if he had a lick of sense he’d run as fast as he can away from her, but the lie chokes the words back and they don’t make it passed her lips. Instead she bites her tongue and blinks until her eyes stop stinging.

“Oh, Ellie, love,” says her mum and wraps her up tight. She doesn’t cry, but she accepts the hug gratefully, clinging tightly and waits for the trembling to stop. “It’ll all work out just fine, you’ll see.”

Ellie doubts it, but she doesn’t contradict her mother’s words. Instead she pulls back and they keep walking, talking about inconsequential things: the weather, how nice the grounds will be in warmer months and finer weather, Ellie’s Nan’s poor health, her cousin’s latest escapades...nothing of great importance.

Eventually they settle on a park bench and the conversation falls into the lull it always does when Ellie’s mother is trying not to ask whether or not she’s seeing dead people again. And that’s when she sees him.

He’s too far away for her to see him clearly, and there’s nothing about him that immediately suggests ‘ghost’ or ‘remnant’, but she knows he is anyway. She braces, but there is no flashes, no deluge overcoming her senses, he does not intrude on her in anyway and when she blinks he’s gone altogether. Her fingers curl around the edge of her jacket and she holds back a sigh wondering how quickly she can send her mother on her way. 

Once a ghost appears – here at Bedlam, at any rate – it is only a matter of time before things go sideways into violence and terror. While she would like nothing better than to be able to prove she’s not crazy, that she’s not disturbed, that what she’s sees is real, introducing it to her mother in true Bedlam style is not the way to go about it. Not that there’s anything concrete to show her mother, and the residents of the newly christened Brightmoor are reasonably good at ignoring all but the most blatant spectral activity, but evidence and an open mind can easily discern the truth.

“You see something, don’t you?” There’s no judgement in her mum’s tone, but the corner of her mouth pulls down and her eyes are a little shiny. For the first time since this began Ellie actually wants to comfort someone else, tell them that’s all right. For the first time, she’s not the one seeking comfort and it makes her feel warm and light even through the chilly air.

She uses this new strength to smile, real and genuine, and unafraid. “Nothing I’m not meant to,” she says. It’s not quite the truth, but close enough.

“You have this look...”

“I’m just really tired.” Also the truth. “Max and I stayed up late watching movies.” Less the truth, though he does sit up with her when the visions get too bad for her to sleep. Says it keeps her from wandering off and finding trouble.

“I thought he seemed a bit odd, but I didn’t want to say on our first meeting. I guess this place is making me project,” and she veers back into their original topic. “It’s nice enough on the inside, but the outside it’s a bit creepy and then you’re wearing that look...”

“I’m fine, Mum, really.” It’s not quite the whole truth. She aches to have Andy back beside her, she worries constantly about not having a job or money, people think she’s lost her mind and then there’s the remnants...but there’s a burden that’s gone now and she feels that lightness in a way she never could before.

“You know what, I think you are. And when Andy realises his mistake, and comes to find you, you’ll be a stronger person.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Because it all comes back to that.

“Then you’ll still be stronger, but you’ll find someone better.”

“I don’t want someone better. I want him.”

“I know, love, but it will all work out. You have to believe that.”

The lightness, the happiness, is gone, but her mum’s right, she is stronger, she can feel it. So when a large branch nearby suddenly break off a tree, flies several metres in their direction and hits the ground, Ellie doesn’t panic (too much), even with the glimpse of black eyes and long matted blond hair standing in the shadow, but just calmly suggests they head inside to her shaken mother.

-x-x-x-

**Author's Note:**

> In it's own way, this feels complete, but I also could add more to it. So look out for (possibly) more chapters.


End file.
